The present invention relates to a measuring apparatus whose arithmetic and control unit can determine a certain characteristic of an object from a plurality of pieces of information inputted. Examples of such measuring apparatus are a healthy indicia measuring apparatus and a body fat percentage gauge.
Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No.5-2164 shows a card-like body fat percentage gauge having a display and a console on its front side and four measurement electrodes on its rear side. Two measurement electrodes are arranged on its left side whereas the remaining two measurement electrodes are arranged on its right side. Thus, two fingers of either hand can be put on these electrodes when one""s body fat percentage is being measured. A pocket-sized body fat percentage gauge commercially available from NAMCO Ltd., has one electrode each on its front and rear sides. Another pocket-sized body fat percentage gauge commercially available from Yamato Scale Co. Ltd., has two electrodes on the upper part each of its front and rear sides.
These gauges determine the body fat percentage on the basis of the biological impedance of an individual while he or she holds the gauge with his or her hands putting on paired electrodes, thereby permitting the biological impedance appearing between the selected points of hands to be determined. Body fat is likely to impede the flow of electric current greately compared with muscle, blood and lymph, which conduct electric current well. Therefore, the body fat percentage can be determined in terms of impedance. Calculation of the body fat percentage in terms of the biological impedance must take physical variables of the individual into account, and therefore, the sex, height, weight and other variables are inputted in the body fat percentage gauge prior to measurement. As a matter of fact, some extra pieces of physical information such as human races, athletes, adults or children and ages are inputted in the body fat percentage gauge.
If the body fat percentage gauge should require the inputting of such variables every time a required measurement is made, the gauge is inconvenient. In the hope of reducing such inconvenience the gauge is equipped with memories for storing such variables once inputted in the gauge, and an individual can have an access to his or her particulars simply by inputting his or her identification number.
Referring to FIG. 5, a series of actions taken by the prior art gauge follow in measuring the body fat percentage are shown in the form of flow chart. The series of actions on the left side pertain to registration of the physical variables of an individual whereas those on the right side pertain to the measurement of the body fat percentage. As seen from the left part of the flow chart, the identification number, the sex, the height and the weight are stored in the order named in the memory.
Usually the body fat percentage gauge is used while an individual is limiting the amount and type of food that the individual eats in order to become thinner or while an individual continues to take good exercise in order to strengthen his muscle, and therefore, the weight varies significantly in a relatively short length of time. A weight scale type of body fat percentage gauge permits automatic measurement of the weight simultaneous with measurement of the body fat percentage, thus making it unnecessary to input the instantaneous or present weight. The hand-holding type of body fat percentage gauge requires the reentering of all variables, that is, the identification number, the sex, the height and finally the weight, preventing the changing of the sole variable of weight, which can be inputted after having inputted all the preceding variables as seen from the left part of FIG. 5. Apparently this is inconvenient in using the body fat percentage gauge.
One object of the present invention is to provide a measuring apparatus which facilitates alteration of selected variables in measuring a certain characteristic of an object.
Another object of the present invention is to provide application of such measuring apparatus to measurement of healthy indicia.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide application of such measuring apparatus to measurement of body fat percentage.
To attain these objects a measuring apparatus comprising: an inputting device comprising;
an inputting-and-setting switch for inputting and recording a plurality of pieces of information, data-modifying switches for changing a selected one or ones of the plurality of pieces of information and a measurement starting switch for starting measurement of a certain characteristic of an object;
a measuring device for measuring the certain characteristic of the object;
a memory device for storing the plurality of pieces of information inputted by the inputting device;
an arithmetic and control unit (ACU) for determining a required indicia from the certain characteristic of the object and from the plurality of pieces of information; and
a display for showing the plurality of pieces of information and the so determined indicia, is improved according to the present invention in that
the arithmetic and control unit is responsive to depression of the data-modifying switches subsequent to depression of the measurement starting switch for putting the measuring apparatus in its inputting state, thereby permitting alteration of a selected one of the plurality of pieces of information.
The measuring apparatus may comprise a selector switch for selecting a desired piece of information for alteration among the selected ones of the plurality of pieces of information.
The arithmetic and control unit may be responsive to depression of the measurement starting switch for permitting the display device to show a registered piece of information for alteration in the display prior to and during the measurement of the certain characteristic of the object.
The arithmetic and control unit may be responsive to appearance of unusual values as representing the certain characteristic of the object for permitting the display device to continue to show the registered piece of information for alteration, for repeating determination of the certain characteristic of the object until the so determined characteristic of the object has been reduced to a normal value, and for obtaining the indicia from the normal value of the characteristic of the object finally determined and selected pieces of information retrieved from the memory, thereby permitting the display to show the required indicia.
A healthy indicia measuring apparatus comprising:
an inputting device comprising an inputting-and-setting switch for inputting and recording a plurality of pieces of physical information pertaining to each individual, data-modifying switches for changing a selected one or ones of the plurality of pieces of physical information and a measurement starting switch for starting measurement of a certain characteristic of each individual;
sensors for obtaining a selected piece or pieces of biological information;
a memory for storing the plurality of pieces of physical information pertaining to each individual inputted by the inputting device;
an arithmetic and control unit (ACU) for determining a healthy indicia from the stored pieces of physical information and from the measured piece of biological information; and
a display for showing the pieces of physical information and the so determined healthy indicia, is improved according to the present invention in that
the arithmetic and control unit is responsive to depression of the data-modifying switches subsequent to depression of the measurement starting switch for putting the healthy indicia measuring apparatus in its inputting state, thereby permitting alteration of a selected one of the stored pieces of physical information.
The healthy indicia measuring apparatus may further comprise a selector switch for selecting a desired piece of information among two or more selected ones of the stored pieces of physical information.
The arithmetic and control unit may be responsive to depression of the measurement starting switch for permitting the display device to show a given piece of physical information for alteration in the display prior to and during the measurement of the biological information.
The arithmetic and control unit may be responsive to appearance of unusual values as representing the measurement of the piece of biological information for permitting the display device to continue to show the registered piece of physical information for alteration, for repeating determination of the biological information of the individual until the so determined biological information has been reduced to a normal value, and for obtaining the healthy indicia from the normal value of the so determined biological information and selected pieces of physical information retrieved from the memory, thus permitting the display to show the required healthy indicia.
A body fat percentage measuring apparatus comprising:
an inputting device comprising an inputting-and-setting switch for inputting and recording a plurality of pieces of physical information pertaining to each individual, data-modifying switches for changing the sex, the age, the height, the weight and other pieces of physical information of each individual, and a measurement starting switch for starting the measurement of the body fat percentage for each individual;
a biological impedance sensor having electrodes to be applied to the individual body;
a memory for storing the pieces of physical information pertaining to each individual inputted by the inputting device;
an arithmetic and control unit (ACU) for determining the body fat percentage from the determined biological impedance and from the stored pieces of physical information; and
a display for showing the pieces of physical information and the so determined body fat percentage, is improved according to the present invention in that
the arithmetic and control unit is responsive to depression of the data-modifying switches subsequent to depression of the measurement starting switch for putting the body fat percentage measuring apparatus in its inputting state, thereby permitting alteration of a selected one of the stored pieces of physical information pertaining to each individual.
The body fat percentage measuring apparatus may further comprise a selector switch for selecting a desired piece of information among two or more selected ones of the pieces of physical information.
The arithmetic and control unit may be responsive to depression of the measurement starting switch for permitting the display device to show the registered piece of physical information for alteration in the display prior to and during the measurement of the biological impedance.
The arithmetic and control unit may be responsive to appearance of unusual values as representing the biological impedance for permitting the display device to continue to show the registered piece of information desired for alteration, for repeating determination of the biological impedance until the so determined biological impedance has been reduced to a normal value, and for obtaining the body fat percentage from the normal value of the biological impedance and selected pieces of information retrieved from the memory, thus permitting the display to show the required body fat percentage.
One piece of physical information to be selected for alteration may be weight.
The piece of physical information selected for alteration may be one of the weight and height selected by the selector switch.